Wood's embossing apparatus for use by blind people

Made:
1857
Wood's apparatus for the blind, for embossing on Lucas's system.

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Wood's apparatus for the blind, for embossing on Lucas's system.
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Wood's apparatus for the blind, for embossing on Lucas's system.

British educator Thomas M. Lucas (c.1764 - 18 May 1838) developed the Lucas Type (or Lucas System) in 1830. The Lucas system was a tactile alphabet system designed to help blind people, especially children, learn to read by feeling the embossed text, based on shorthand and phonetic principles. The Lucas system was developed before the Braille system was introduced in the UK.

The Lucas System was not widely used or especially successful because the symbols chosen had little relationship with their Roman alphabet letter and so could not be easily read by sighted people.

Details

Category:
Printing & Writing
Object Number:
1857-180
type:
embossing apparatus
credit:
Association for Teaching the Blind